[Coral-List] Canthigaster rostrata masive death in San Andres Archipelago,

[Derek Hogan]

Dear Colleagues,

 

I want to thank you Franck for posting this interesting topic. I just wanted
to add my observations to this thread. Anecdotally, we saw a marked increase
in C. rostrata at Turneffe Atoll, Belize this past summer (I understand that
their numbers may have been high for some time now, perhaps years). Also, we
are observing high abundances of C. rostrata in Bocas del Toro, Panama, at
some sites constituting ~50% of all observed fishes on transects. Although I
am not aware as of yet of massive die offs of this species in these
locations. It would be interesting to hear from other colleagues about their
experiences at other locations and in the past. Is this another part of a
historical cycle of boom and bust in C. rostrata or is there something new
that is driving the increase in densities (and subsequent mortality events)
on a large scale?

 

Best, 

Derek

 

J. Derek Hogan

Assistant Professor - Marine Biology

Dept. of Life Sciences

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi

Phone: +1 (361) 825 - 5883